Where have you gone, ET?

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Where have you gone, ET?

By Tim Wood

If there really are extraterrestrial life forms, they must be having a good laugh at us earthlings.

A look at our popular media this summer shows a strong interest in the idea of alien beings visiting Earth and even crashing their spaceships here.

Time Magazine recently featured an "alien" on its cover to promote its in depth coverage of the Roswell phenomenon. Two movies, "Men in Black," and "Contact," deal with beings from other worlds.

Two of the big hits of 1996 were "Independence Day" and "Star Trek: First Contact," both of which dealt with extra-terrestrial subject matter.

Then there's the highly popular television show "The X-Files," which proclaims "The Truth is Out There." Presumably, this is the truth about alien life.

Much of this revolves around the Roswell phenomenon. In 1947, Something crashed in 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico. The government says it was a then top-secret balloon. Skeptics and UFO buffs say a bona fide flying saucer with several alien beings crashed. Compounding the problem is the fact that government's first official statements indeed said that a flying saucer had crashed. Then, the government hastily retracted its statement.
"Independence Day" built on the legend, featuring a flying saucer recovered from the Roswell crash. The Fox Network aired a film that allegedly portrayed the autopsy of an alien being who died in the Roswell incident.

There is no shortage of speculation about unidentified flying objects. Bookstores have plenty of books about such things. I find myself drawn to them. For

better or worse, they are intriguing. It seems there is a 99 percent probability that we have never been visited by beings from another planet. But that one percent makes us wonder: what if?

Movies such as "Independence Day" make great entertainment. But as one of the Time Magazine articles said, why would alien beings take several days to destroy our planet when we can do it ourselves in a matter of hours?

If there is intelligent life on other planets, one would wonder why we haven't found any evidence of it. I'm not talking about flying saucers landing on the White House lawn, as in the classic sci-fi movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Rather, why haven't all of our giant radio telescopes picked up some kind of transmission?

For example, our radio and television broadcasts have been going into space for years. If there are ETs cruising in the vicinity, they no doubt have the technology to tune in to an old episode of "I Love Lucy."

Of course, that could explain why they've chosen not to make contact.

Why haven't we picked up something from other civilizations? It could be that we indeed are the most advanced civilization in the universe and no one else is capable of sending out signals. That would be a nice ego boost.

If you want to deflate our collective ego, though, consider the possibility that alien transmissions have been bombarding the planet for years, but we just aren't smart enough to recognize them as such.

Other world civilizations may have collectively decided not to contact us until we reach a certain level of development. This is similar to the "prime directive" idea of Star Trek. Captains Kirk, Picard, Sisko and Janeway are not supposed to contact developing civilizations - unless, of course, Captain Kirk wants to get his hands on the episode's female guest star.

Or, Captain Picard wants to have a long boring scene in the conference room discussing the pros and cons of making contact.

Some UFOlogists think aliens have been in contact with our governments for years. This, they say, explains all of the government coverups of flying saucer reports. They say this is why former president Jimmy Carter, who professed to seeing a UFO, reneged on a promise to open up government files on flying saucers.

Then there are religious questions. I've often grappled with the question of whether God made us the only sentient race in His creation. There are

countless other worlds out there. Surely, some scientists say, some of them produced life in the same manner as earth.

If there are other worlds out there with intelligent life, did God send Jesus Christ to them as well? Maybe not. Perhaps we're the only ones who

messed up and needed a savior.

Or, what if flying saucers do land on the White House lawn and we find out that they are missionaries?

If undeniable proof of intelligent alien life were produced, what would that do to our religious beliefs? I'd like to think it would enhance my beliefs, but it would surely be a trial.

But I do take comfort in the fact that the Creator of the Universe has made himself known to us. In light of that reality, the existence of little green